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Fatah Official Says ‘Palestinian Holocaust’ Is a Winning Card
Palestinian Olympic Committee President Jibril Rajoub, who also heads the Palestinian Football Association, holds a news conference to update the media about challenges facing Palestinian sports ahead of the Olympics in Paris, in Ramallah, in the West Bank, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The Palestinian leadership is keenly aware that the strongest weapon in their arsenal against Israel in the Oct. 7 war is victimhood, and that their challenge is to effectively play this “Palestinian holocaust Card “– “the winning card” — as a senior Fatah official recently called it.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) play a key role in this dirty tactic.
Hamas actively seeks to increase the number of dead Gazans in order to “inflame public opinion” against Israel, as was exposed by Fatah TV. It also murders Gazans seeking food, in order to maintain its monopoly over the vast quantities of humanitarian aid that it steals, thereby creating a narrative of “starvation.” The PA then runs with this manufactured humanitarian crisis and sells this “Palestinian holocaust” to the world as being Israel’s fault, in order to delegitimize Israel’s defensive war through feigned victimhood.
One of the top Fatah leaders, Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, made this message very explicit on official PA TV, when he called to exploit “the Palestinian holocaust … the winning card”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “We the Palestinians, what is happening to us and what has happened to us for two years [in the Gaza war], and in fact it has been happening for 77 years [since Israel’s creation] – but today the world is convinced of it. This is the Palestinian holocaust, and this is the winning card that we need to know how to use.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Aug. 5, 2025]
Rajoub asserted that in the past two years of war, the world has become “convinced” of Palestinian victimhood, and he emphasized the need to exploit this. Indeed, the PA has been trying to manipulate anti-Israel bias in various ways, including by pushing lawfare actions against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Palestinian Media Watch recently exposed these actions that violate American law in a report sent to the US State Department, and in response to the US announced sanctions against PLO and PA members.
Aside from the PA led by Fatah, Hamas itself has been cynically pushing a narrative of victimhood.
Hamas, which started the current war with a horrific massacre and continues to hold Israeli hostages in horrific conditions, also recognizes that the world has eagerly gobbled up the demonization against Israel’s defensive war in Gaza.
The Oct. 7 massacre has brought various boons to the Palestinians, according to senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad. One of the main results listed by Hamad is the demonization of Israel on the world stage, which has come about through the extensive Palestinian victimhood campaign:
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad: “The whole world believed that the occupation state [i.e., Israel] is a democratic, beautiful, oppressed, and persecuted state. Today I think that the whole world believes that this mask has fallen from Israel’s face.
The whole world has begun to act against Israel. The marches and rallies that are now in America, Britain, France, and Germany all speak of genocide. Who [would have] imagined that today occupation state [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] is wanted by the International Criminal Court? And that even its [Israeli Army] Chief of Staff [sic., former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant] is wanted by the ICC? And that Israel is now accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing? All these things have exposed Israel.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Jazeera TV Live website, Aug. 2, 2025; Al-Jazeera TV Live, YouTube channel, Aug. 3, 2025]
In celebrating the so-called achievements of the Oct. 7 massacre, Hamad singled out the false accusations of “genocide and ethnic cleansing.” These accusations are part of the Palestinian narrative that has no basis in fact of course, as the population of Gaza has actually grown during the alleged “genocide.”
But according to Hamad, by playing the victim card in the current war, the Palestinians have started the “collapse” of Israel, as he asserted in the same interview:
Ghazi Hamad: “In this war against the occupation on Oct. 7, the countdown to the collapse of the occupation state began, and I believe it has already entered a stage of collapse.”
[Al-Jazeera TV Live website, Aug. 2, 2025; Al-Jazeera TV Live, YouTube channel, Aug. 3, 2025]
Given the number of Western states pledging to recognize “Palestine” as a state following Oct. 7, and the arms embargo on Israel recently announced by Germany, it seems the Palestinian strategy of playing the “winning” holocaust card has indeed been working. It remains to be seen if and when the world will stop being a tool of Palestinian terror organizations.
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.